I didn't bother to read that far as I was only interested in his perspective on Rawatism. I found his ideas about the Light technique bizarre, even more bizarre than the technique itself, pineal gland?? Did people, apart from Rennie Davis, really believe any of that ?
And I love this: "What he experienced was a breath that came from within, on its own momentum,"! Holy Shit! Here I have been making each breath happen by my constant remembrance for the last 30 years worried that I might die if I forget to make too many of them in a row. I'm a bit afraid to just see if they go on by themselves though. Has anyone else tried it?
"He frequented the Macrobiotic community, based in Boston, and took lessons from its master, Mischio Kushi.
He dropped LSD (the only time in his life) and had a transformational
experience where he “got” the lost state of his soul. He began to do
selfless (unpaid) service at the Root-One Restaurant in Boston and
there met devotees of Guru Maharaj-ji who prompted him to receive the
“Knowledge.”
He feared it was a commercial concern and instead traveled to
Argentina, mostly by land in 1973-1974, carrying with him a copy “The
Autobiography of a Yogi”, by Parmahansa Yogananda, which influenced him
deeply. Once in Argentina he first enrolled in Medical School, but
after a one-month stint dropped-our to become involved in the aspirancy
for Guru Maharaj-ji’s “Knowledge.” He was initiated a year after first
seeing Guru maharaj-ji in Providence Rhode Island, by Mahatma
Vijey-Anand-ji on 10/15/74. In 1975 Marcelo traveled to LA to be near
his Guru’s Malibu residnce and became a Chauffeur for a Beverly Hills
Millionaire Playboy and a wanna-be jet-setter who eventually married
and divorced “Hello Dolly” star Marisa Berenson.
While in Beverly Hills Marcelo mixed with the Hollywood crowd
and eventually left the scene to deepen his practice of the meditation,
having a break-through experience in mid-seventy-five while living at
Argyle st. in Hollywood.
The way that Maharaj-ji taught the meditation, or Knowledge, as
he called it was through four techniques, known as Light, Music, Word
and Nectar. The meditation did not involve any repetition of phrases
inside your had, like a Mantra, or chanting, it did not involve any
breathing exercises or visualization. You did not sit there and think
of anything as an exercise, nor did it involve any movement such as
Thai-chi.
The meditation involved four different ways of tuning into the
inner energy. Marcelo would practice the music technique first, by
closing off his ears to external sound, this would allow him to tune-in
deeper into the internal sound, he found extremely calming to the
emotions. When he was sufficiently tranquil, he would press in the
middle of his forehead on top of his Pineal gland. This was the Light
technique, which would focus his mind on the inner light, perceived by
the Pineal gland, a light-sensitive organ placed inside the cranial
enclosure (unable to perceive external light). Once fully focused, h
would delight in simply sitting there aware of his breath, without
trying to force it deeper or shallower, faster or slower, soon falling
into a vaster inner realm that was extremely satisfying, this was the
Word. Eventually, when he had enough of the experience, he locked it
all in by moving his tongue in back of the uvula and holding it there
as much as possible, this was the Nectar!
Up until the time he moved to the Argyle st. apartments,
Marcelo had been quite distracted with the demands of everyday life.
The fast-paced jet-setting life of his job, with all the myriad
personalities and responsibilities, the occasional use of recreational
drugs, the sexual exploits with his live-in girl-friend. Eventually the
fast life ended, and his relationship too stopped.
At the Argyle st. apartments there were some forty-plus
“premies” (followers of Maharaj-ji) living there. Every night they
would drive over to the satsang hall at Larchmont st.
Once he was given several ounces of Marijuana, yet he found
himself giving them away, his focus had become complete on his
spiritual pursuit.
One night he got home from the satsang meeting, and went into
his closet to be able to meditate without external noises or
disturbances. He sat there for a long time doing all of the techniques
at the same time as much as possible. What he experienced was a breath
that came from within, on its own momentum, and with it came a
realization that this consciousness had tracked his travels through all
the dimensions, never leaving him for an instant. It felt like a very
loving presence, and from that point on, he was always able to maintain
contact with this presence.
There were many travels, and many travails.
One theme that started to emerge in his life was the
realization that Guru Maharaj-ji was more out for himself than he was
there for others. This perception was given him one time as he was
watching television, and the program he was watching mirrored to him
the extreme selfishness of the master in relationship to the devotee
that adored him. The more he began to question Maharaj-ji’s intentions
to himself and others, even to Maharaj-ji himself at public forums, the
more evident it became to him that this journey was for Maharaj-ji
himself, that this was truly not what he was seeking for himself. The
process of dis-association from the cult was rather slow and organic.
At first came the realization in 1980 that Maharaj-ji was
playing to a greater audience than just his “premies” (devotees), by
this time Maharaj-ji had gathered a professional team around him of
lawyers and promoters, and he was changing his tune away from a God to
a humanist in order to avoid prosecution as a cult leader in the wake
of the incident where the cult leader (Jim Jones) had some eighty
people poison themselves in S. America. Maharaj-ji was re-inventing
himself in a more marketable light, and as the process began to unfold
Marcelo began to move away from pusuing the “ashram” (renunciant) life
of poverty, chastity and obedience that had never really pulled him,
and he identified more with the householder model, where the devotee
had a family, and was able to manifest his devotion while being in the
world, and caring for his family.
Marcelo married in September of 1981, they traveled to France
where she had been born, and upon their return had a baby girl via
midwife-birth in Miami Florida in May of 1982. Three years later they
had their second child, a boy in November of 1985.
But all was not well between them and as his wife kept getting
closer to Maharaj-ji, Marcelo kept distancing himself, and in 1988 he
moved away altogether.
"
